A low-cost way to do it would be to paint the walls, the garage door, and close off any access to utilities.

I tell our customers all of the time, when you're steadily pursuing highly distressed leads with this criteria it's not a question of if, but how often you will contact the heir to a property who either didn't realized they owned, or they though the property had already been auctioned off by the bank or county.  

Hey all - first off, thanks to everyone for all of the valuable information and tips!

I use someone off UpWork to run Skips – usually 1.50 per lead and have about a 60% success rate and easy format which is the big thing for me compared to other services I tried I was spending too much time trying to format for the skips or after and was just not worth it.

@Bryce Jamison you have to drop mom off I guess :) Seriously though a beach cart like wheeleeze or something to bring the stuff to the beach is good even if you are only 2 blocks away.

Would regular rentals cashflow, or would I be better off focusing on MTRs? 

Starting out with a house hack is by far the best way to kick off your investment journey.

My intention is to use the insurance claim funds to pay off the mortgage on the rental property.

Some lenders don't require 6 months to do a cash-out refinance and lever off the appraised value. 

There are many more but that is just off the top of my head.